The Scarlet Letter: Pearl - The Living Symbol
Pearl. A child born of sin. Conceived by lust. Created by
impurity.
As the result of her parents fall from grace, she represents the
sinfulness of their act, and is a continual tool for the recollection of
their dubious deed. Sent, was she, from the Almighty God as a gift, and a
burden of the heart.
"'God gave me the child?' cried she. 'He gave her in requital of
all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!- she is
my torture, none the less! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only
capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million fold the power of
retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!'"(109)
"'There is truth ...
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meant, doubtless, as
the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution too; a torture to be
felt at many an unthought-of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring
agony, in the midst of a troubled joy! Hath she not expressed this thought
with the garb of the poor child, so forcibly reminding us of that red
symbol which sears her bosom?'"(110-111).
Pearls gestures, and the essence which her presence pours forth,
insinuate to the child's evil roots and the effect there of.
"the child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving her
existence, a great law had been broken, and the result was a being whose
elements where perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder."…
"Above all, the warfare of Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated
in Pearl. She could recognize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the
flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom
and despondency that had brooded in her heart. They were now illuminated
by the ...
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The Scarlet Letter: Pearl - The Living Symbol. (2005, January 27). Retrieved April 16, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Scarlet-Letter-Pearl-Living-Symbol/21282
"The Scarlet Letter: Pearl - The Living Symbol." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Jan. 2005. Web. 16 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Scarlet-Letter-Pearl-Living-Symbol/21282>
"The Scarlet Letter: Pearl - The Living Symbol." Essayworld.com. January 27, 2005. Accessed April 16, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Scarlet-Letter-Pearl-Living-Symbol/21282.
"The Scarlet Letter: Pearl - The Living Symbol." Essayworld.com. January 27, 2005. Accessed April 16, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Scarlet-Letter-Pearl-Living-Symbol/21282.
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